A Casual Conversation
by SuperPaperBag
Summary: Void one day pops in abruptly and has a very interesting conversation with none other than his adversary Oz Pone Max Reinhardt. Mostly dialogue. Written in Oz's POV.


Oz had placed several precautions around his residence in case his location was discovered. The majority of those precautions were certain spells and enchantments that alerted Oz of a trespasser's presence. At that moment, whilst translating an ancient text in his study, the wizard sensed one of his precautionary spells being activated.

It was incredibly unlikely that some being had simply stumbled into Oz's territory inadvertently, and very few beings knew of his location to begin with. The wizard's most frequent visitor was Zero; however Oz could tell from the aura approaching him that it was by no means the wanderer. It was likely that the intruder was none other than Oz's second most frequent visitor: Void.

Several years ago Void had discovered Oz's location. However, instead of attempting to kill the wizard, he had simply seated himself across from Oz and the two had talked for a while before Void simply stood and left. This strange ritual had been repeated a few times as time went on, and never once did the two demons do anything but talk. Oz had never informed Zero of the odd meeting between the two sworn enemies; it would only worry the wanderer unnecessarily.

The wizard was still not positive as to Void's motives.

Oz's suspicions were confirmed when the door to his study was thrown open and Void calmly seated himself in the empty chair opposite Oz. The wizard continued to translate the text he was reading and did not bother to look up at the other demon.

"Good day, Reinhardt."

The older demon flipped a page and inquired, "Is there any reason you have not simply attempted to kill me yet?" He was not sure as to why Void continued to return time and time again only to converse.

"Oh, that is a simple question! Death would be far too pleasant, you see. I would much prefer to have you live as long as possible, haunted by the deaths you have failed to prevent and the fact that all of your hard work to oppose me was for naught. I especially hope that you will live after your final desperate attempt to stop me fails. Being plagued with the reminder that you directly caused the deaths of two innocent beings not even halfway through their lives will surely destroy you from within," Void elucidated.

"Ah, I see. How petty," Oz remarked. He had been expecting that sort of response.

"'Petty'?" Void inquired dryly. He laughed and asked, "You mean similar to how you forced my love to be reborn so that I would constantly be reminded of her death?"

Oz sighed. He remembered when he had made the decision to force Edna's rebirth. At the time he had been almost entirely consumed by his hatred and spite for the demon currently sitting across from him. It had indeed been a petty and childish decision—one that he regretted to this day. "It was a reminder to you of the lengths you have gone to achieve your goals. You were the one that ultimately caused her death in the first place; you were the one that began the war. Even so, to be completely honest I have never been proud of what I had done, and to this day I feel only compunction for that decision. I was younger then, and far more foolish."

"Have you done many things you are not proud of?"

"Yes."

"Such as creating the Grandark?"

"…Yes," Oz replied solemnly. "…However, I have never once regretted creating that sword. I, too, have gone to great lengths to accomplish my goal, but I still feel as though they were necessary. You need to be stopped, Void."

The other demon merely laughed. "Why? My cause is not as diabolical as you might wish to believe. The humans were the ones who started all of this. They were the ones who have always feared our kind and prejudiced against us simply for being different from them. They were the ones who sealed us in this damned dimension without the change of seasons or the light of day because of their fear and contempt. They refused to accept us. I am merely allowing our kind a chance to reclaim what had been taken from our ancestors. There is no villain here, Oz, just as there is no hero. Nothing in this world is black or white. The humans are not completely virtuous, just as we demons are not completely wicked. We have our own reasons to fight, just as they do. Am I truly the evil one here?"

"I must admit, I am not completely opposed to your cause-"

"Oh really? How interesting," Void interjected.

"…However," Oz continued, "I am completely and unconditionally adverse towards your methods. You are effectively proving every stereotype they have created of us by this forceful takeover. This is not the way to go about retrieving what we have lost. In order to reconcile with them we must slowly have them come to understand that they have misjudged our kind."

Void laughed again, as if he found the idea to be one of the most ridiculous concepts he had ever heard. "What idealistic thinking you have! The humans are far past the point of reason, Oz. Their feelings towards us have been so deeply integrated into their beings throughout the years that it would be nearly impossible to change their views now. No, the only way is through what they can still understand, and that is force. Attempting to negotiate would ultimately yield no results; I am confident that some part of you already knows this."

"There is always hope. Just as I hope that negotiating will lead to mutual understanding between the races, you still hope that there is a way to retrieve your deceased love." The wizard glanced up briefly and noticed a scowl of annoyance flash across the other demon's features for a brief moment.

"So tell me then, if you are not completely against my cause, why oppose me? Do you seek some form of absolution for all of the actions you regret? Perhaps you wish to leave a legacy behind? Defeating me certainly would make you a being of interest in our long history."

"'Legacy'?" Oz scoffed. "I would rather have my name be long forgotten and have fought for a cause I believed in than be remembered for a worthless matter."

"Oh, but you could do so much more!"

"Are you asking me to join you? If so, you should already know my answer."

Void shook his head quickly. "Of course not! We demons are quite stubborn; I would never expect you to change sides, especially after all that you have done. I am simply saying that you are wasting the few remaining years of your life opposing me. As we are being so honest here, I might as well tell you that I have always admired you and your work. You have done so much for demonkind, and it would be such a shame to see you squander your remaining time on a goal that you will never accomplish. Please, Oz, give up. You still have time."

"You are incorrect. There is no time left, and even if there was I would never change my decision. I would never waste all of the time and effort I have put into desisting you. More importantly, I would never allow what Zero has done to be for naught. He has trained tirelessly to defeat you someday. He has spent almost every waking moment for a cause he honestly has no right to be involved in."

"Ah yes, the demon you created to destroy me. What a cruel thing to give him that name. Cruel, yes, and also quite fitting. His entire existence will be for nothing when he is inevitably destroyed by me."

Oz refused to believe that for a moment. He still had hope that the wanderer would succeed. He still had hope that his creation would not eventually betray him and the cause the wizard had supported so ardently. "Perhaps. I had no time for something as trivial as a name; I merely named him what first came to mind. Zero as a number is very unique. It is neither positive nor negative. In the same way, Zero is neutral. He is not obligated to join either side. He is shunned by most demons and humans alike."

"This must lead to distrust between you and him."

"It does on occasion."

"Perhaps, though, it is not the boy who will betray you. Have you ever considered that it might be the sword?"

In a way, it did make sense. Grandark had never been fond of its creator. "The sword cannot do anything on its own. That was the reason it was placed in a sword body to begin with."

"But the sword has much power over its wielder, you see. I witnessed it firsthand when I briefly encountered the pair in Thunder Hammer."

"Hope still prevails," Oz reminded the other demon. "While I may not completely trust Zero and the boy's mind is relatively unstable, I have faith in his competence. He is his own person, and I know that despite the sword's influence he will continue to think his own thoughts as well."

"Well, it appears as though only time can tell now. I look forward to the final fight between your creations and myself. It will no doubt be very interesting." Void then stood and prepared to leave.

"You will fall," Oz stated bluntly, effectively preventing the other demon from departing.

"You state that so confidently," Void remarked. "How do you know this for a fact?"

The wizard remained silent for a moment and raised his head to maintain steady eye contact with the other demon. "There have always been demons like you. You may be stronger and more intelligent than those before you, but you will ultimately share their fate. Whether by the hand of my creations or another, you will eventually fall. When that happens, your life will mean nothing, and you will be remembered only as a fool with an impossible dream. You told me that there was still time to change my ways. There is no time left for me, but perhaps there is still time for you to stop all of this. Cease the deaths of the innocent and this ludicrous goal of yours. You could make an impact on the world and our race in so many other ways."

"…No, you were correct before." Void paused. "There is no time left. We have all passed the point of no return. We shall see where the dice fall in time. I refuse to let the deaths of our kind…the death of Edna…to be for nothing."

"If that is the way it must be…so be it."

* * *

Author's Notes:

-Soooo yeah, not sure where this came from or why. I honestly have no idea. xD This was quite a bit later than usual for some reason.

-I did very little research for this oneshot, so I'm guessing there will be quite a few errors in here. Please tolerate them if possible.

-I call Void/Duel Void. Not sure which is the more appropriate, but for my purposes I'm just calling him Void.

-Why does Void call Oz by last name the first time but later use his first name? I dunno. Because he can? xD

-I know that I probably should have gone into a bit more depth concerning how the demons aren't exactly the bad guys here, but I thought it was kind of evident through...yeah, just about all of my previous stories. Almost all of them concern in some way the prejudice between demons and humans and that sort of thing. Considering the same people read my stories I guess I thought it would be a bit redundant to repeat it here. Oh well.

-As usual, much of this is completely and entirely made up. I'm pretty sure none of this would ever in a million years occur in the actual game. But hey, this is fanfiction, and hopefully it's not too much of a stretch from the actual thing.

-If you wanted to add to the atmosphere or something, listen to Void's theme whilst you read this. That's what I was listening to when I wrote this. xD

-Thanks so much to my readers and reviewers. You guys mean so much to me.


End file.
